Azov anomaly. Terrible secrets of the gentle sea

The Black Sea "Tortuga" is an illegal offshore transshipment widely known in the maritime business. maritime boundaries.

Fourteen people died in a fire on the ships "Maestro" and "Kandy" in the Kerch Strait area. The circumstances of the incident are analyzed on his Facebook page by the head of the supervisory board of the “Maidan of Foreign Information”, an expert on Crimean issues, the editor-in-chief of the publication “BlackSeaNews” Andrey Klimenko

Let us recall what is known about the tragedy that happened in the Black Sea today.

Thus, in addition to the dead, the fate of 6 people out of 32 remains unknown. 12 were saved. The rescued sailors from two burning ships, as well as the bodies of the dead, are being delivered to Kerch. It was not possible to do this at night due to stormy weather. The operation was transferred from rescue to search.

As of Tuesday morning, the fire had not yet been extinguished and the ships were still burning. According to preliminary data, the fire occurred during the transfer of fuel from one vessel to another.

The ships “Maestro” and “Kandy” were leaving the port of Temryuk in the Kuban, the head of the seaport Mikhail Migda reported. The anchorage where the ships were located was illegal. The vessels were transporting liquefied gas. Both ships left Temryuk. One in the middle of the month (December 2018), the other on January 20.

What actually happened in the Kerch area?

Where?

This is not the Kerch Strait. It's quite far from it. This is the Black Sea, neutral waters. 15 miles south, approximately 28 km.

The location of the tragedy on the map.

This is an illegal (unofficial) widely known in the maritime business, but a very large raid transshipment beyond sea borders. Sometimes sailors call her “Tortuga”; in this area of ​​“wild” transshipment, the Turkish cargo ship “Arsenal Heroes” sank in the spring of 2017.

Who?

The explosion occurred on two Turkish gas tankers (Lpg Tanker) - “Candy” (ex “Venice”, “Green Energy”) and “Maestro” (ex “Green Light”). Now they are under the flag of Tanzania, and the owner is somewhere on the islands. In fact, the real owner was deeply hidden there, but the Americans dug it up - the Turkish “Milenyum Denizcilik Gemi”, and there is nowhere to put tests on them.

Since the spring of 2015, they have been on the US Syrian sanctions list and on our “black list” – the Crimean one.

What happened there?

If they say that they stood side by side, they could have been pumping gas ship to ship. For what? - Don't know. It's like sitting on a propane tank and setting it on fire. These are extremely dangerous ships in themselves.

Illegal transportation of gas from occupied Kerch

Both traded in the illegal transportation of gas (Lpg) from occupied Kerch (see our plate), to Lately also from Temryuk. They took him to Syria and Lebanon.

Is this related to?

This has nothing to do with the situation in the Sea of ​​Azov and the Kerch Strait. These tankers were always allowed through the Kerch Strait first. Most likely - not a very legal business.

Andrey Klimenko,

A successful search and rescue operation took place at east coast Japan, where a fishing boat sank.

The incident occurred in Pacific Ocean and almost cost the lives of 18 crew members of the ship in trouble.

The crew of the sunken ship was reportedly rescued by a fishing schooner passing nearby. Also, part of the crew of the rescue vehicle managed to leave board on a lifeboat, after which they were picked up by another ship.

At the moment, nothing threatens the life and health of the sailors. A total of 18 crew members were rescued - 12 Japanese citizens and 6 Indonesian nationals.

The first reports of the sinking of a fishing vessel 850 kilometers off the coast of the Japanese Miyagi Prefecture arrived on the night of June 19-20. At the moment, the causes and circumstances of the shipwreck are unknown.

In all likelihood, the ship received a hole, since the colleagues rescuing the sailors noticed that the ship tilted to the left side.

The incident occurred in stormy conditions. In the region of the shipwreck there was a strong storm and waves of up to 4 meters were recorded. Two Japanese Coast Guard ships and three helicopters were sent to the sinking ship, the crews of which did not have time to provide assistance to the sinking ship.

On Monday, July 2, at the Zaporozhye resort, vacationers filmed a tornado that was spotted in the Sea of ​​Azov, at a great distance from the coast.

Helper Zaporozhye activist Evgeniy Pavlyuk managed to photograph the disaster.

It is worth noting that a natural phenomenon recorded in the resort village of Kirillovka.

In particular, the tornado was noticed in the Azov Sea at about 9:30.

Almost two hundred people are missing in a shipwreck

A large-scale water disaster occurred in Indonesia, where 166 people went missing as a result of a ferry accident. This was stated by Indonesian government officials.

Let us note that previously there was information about 130 potential victims of the crash.

Let us recall that a ferry with several hundred passengers sank on Lake Toba in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra yesterday, June 19. In total, there were more than 350 people on board the sunken ship.

At the moment, only one person is known to have died, since the bodies of the remaining passengers from the ferry have never been found. Hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers are working at the scene of the tragedy. The search for potential victims of the crash is complicated by bad weather conditions.

At the moment, there is no information available about the probable cause of the ship's disaster.

Residents of South Korea on Sunday, July 1, suffered from powerful torrential rains, which were caused by the approach of a typhoon called Prapirun to the southwestern coast of the country. Reports a natural disaster The Korea Herald.

According to the publication, due to worsening weather conditions, at least one person has previously gone missing and another has died.

In total, about 33 flights at eight airports across the state had to be cancelled. Heavy rains caused flooding in many parts of the country.

Ship accident in Indonesia: rescuers cannot find about 60 passengers

On Monday, June 18, a ferry carrying about 80 passengers sank in Indonesia, killing one and leaving dozens missing.

The ferry Sinar Bangun, which was carrying passengers in North Sumatra province on Lake Toba, sank in stormy weather at about 17:30 local time (13:30 Kyiv time) a mile from the port of Tigaras.

In the first hours of the search and rescue operation, about 19 people were lifted from the water. In addition, the body of one tourist was discovered. All others are listed as “missing in action.”

Speaker of the National Disaster Management Authority natural Disasters Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said rescue efforts were ongoing at the lake but were being slowed down by bad weather.

It is reported that Lake Toba, where the accident occurred, is located in the crater of an extinct volcano. The lake is considered the world's largest reservoir of volcanic origin. Its dimensions reach 87 kilometers in length and 27 kilometers in width.

Heavy rains in South Korea: 1 dead, 8 wounded.

South Korea was hit by heavy rains that led to flooding. IN different areas 66 houses and 4,528 hectares of agricultural land were damaged or flooded in the country, and 22 cars were under water. 1 person died as a result of a lightning strike. Eight people were injured during the floods, KBS World Radio reports.

A ship exploded in the Bahamas

A tourist boat exploded in the Bahamas. As a result of the explosion, one person died on the spot and 11 others were injured. varying degrees gravity.

According to CNN, the ship's engine exploded during a tourist voyage. The boat with passengers was immediately engulfed in fire.

Coast Guard personnel arrived at the scene of the accident.

In total there were ten passengers and two crew members on board - residents of the islands.

The Coast Guard said four US tourists were taken to a Florida hospital and the rest were sent to Princess Margaret Hospital in the Bahamian capital of Nassau.

Among the victims is also the ship's captain, who requires medical attention.

A video has emerged of a boat with 10 tourists on it at the time of the explosion.

In the Bahamas, tourists witnessed a terrifying sight: a boat with people on board burst into flames before their eyes. This happened due to an engine explosion, after which the ship was instantly engulfed in flames. Witnesses of the tragedy were able to swim closer to help the tourists who were there.

According to the New York Post, there were 10 American tourists and two Bahamian residents on the boat. One person died, and everyone else received serious injuries and burns. They were pulled out and taken to the hospital.

Floods in Ghana kill 5 people

A flash flood last Thursday in the city of Kumasi in Ghana left at least five people dead and another missing, the agency reports. G.N.A.

The Emergency Response Team rescued 293 people from flood waters. The search continues for a missing teenage girl.

The outbreak of flooding was caused by heavy rain that continued for six hours. Some buildings were damaged.

The shipwreck took the lives of hundreds of people, including infants

A ship disaster in the Mediterranean Sea could have taken the lives of about 100 illegal migrants. Among the possible victims of the shipwreck are two infants and three children under 12 years old.

It is reported that the shipwreck with refugees occurred yesterday near the coast of Libya.

“The bodies of three children have been found and about a hundred more are missing after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Libya on Friday.”, - said representatives of the authorities.

There were about 120 people on board the sunken ship, of whom only 16 were rescued. It is assumed that another 100 people died in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Passengers who survived the disaster said that the ship sank as a result of the explosion. On board were citizens of Morocco and Yemen.

A search operation is currently underway in the area of ​​the shipwreck. The chances of finding surviving passengers are minimal.

Typhoon Prapirun passes Okinawa, warnings are issued on the Japanese island of Kyushu and South Korea

Typhoon "Prapirun" ("Florita" - according to the Philippine classification) passed off the Japanese island of Okinawa, where there were no serious consequences, and continues to move in the East China Sea, shifting towards the island of Kyushu. Wind speed reaches 125 km/h, gusts - 180 km/h, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reports. In South Korea, warnings of strong winds and heavy rainfall are in effect on Jeju Island and southern parts of the country, warns the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

A cargo ship crashed into moored ships and sank them.

The bulk carrier BAO KHANH 16 (IMO 8603236, flag of Vietnam) rammed the ships that were at the berth.

In total, experts counted that a large vessel collided with three small ones.

Thus, the ship “NB-6589” still managed to stay afloat as a result of the impact. Only minor damage to the hull was recorded on the craft.

Two more ships from strong blow went to the bottom and completely sank. It is reported that one of them tried to reach the shore, and the second sank at the scene of the accident.

The preliminary cause of the collision of such a number of vessels was indicated as an accident.

Storms sweep across the United States

Several storms swept across the United States from the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf Coast, leaving a vast trail of destruction along the way. The storms were fueled by intense heat and humidity that continues to accumulate over the eastern half of the country.

© globallookpress.com

Most of the damage was caused by wind. A tornado was confirmed in Hickman, Tennessee, with winds reaching 180 km/h. Wind gusts of up to 60 mph were widespread from eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois to western Tennessee and much of Alabama. Strong winds easily knocked down trees and power lines, leaving more than 200,000 people without power at the height of the storms.

200,000 residents were left without electricity in Alabama alone. In Huntsville, also in Alabama, a 70-year-old woman was struck by lightning while bad weather and is in critical condition. New storms on June 30 could disrupt recovery efforts in the southeast of the country. However, the severity and destructiveness of the events that just occurred are not expected to be repeated.

US Navy destroyer comes to the aid of distressed Filipino fishermen

The crew of the US Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin came to the aid of two Filipino fishermen whose boat's engine had failed. The portal Korabli.eu reported this on Thursday, June 28, citing the press service of the US Navy Department of Defense.

The destroyer's crew immediately came to the aid of the Filipinos in distress. First, the sailors contacted the nearest other fishing vessel and reported what had happened. After this, a boat was lowered into the water, which towed the emergency boat to other fishing vessels. The victims were also provided with food for three days.

After making sure that the fishermen were all right, the destroyer Mustin continued patrolling.

The Mustin is part of the USS Ronald Reagan strike group.

In the Krasnodar Territory, hail caused the death of a local resident

Timashevsky, Bryukhovetsky, Korenovsky and Pavlovsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory suffered from hail. The heaviest damage was caused to the Timashevsky district, where 1,800 houses were damaged in the village of Novokorsunskaya, the district administration reports. In the Bryukhovetsky district, 1,438 households in the village of Baturinskaya and the village of Zarya were in the emergency zone. Restoration work lasted just over a day.

Currently, the consequences of the disaster have been practically eliminated, the district administration notes. In the village of Baturinskaya, a canopy collapsed during a disaster, resulting in the death of a local resident. Based on this fact, the Timashevsky interdistrict investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Territory organized a pre-investigation check, reports the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory.

Also, squalls and heavy downpours with hail occurred throughout almost the entire territory of Ukraine and Crimea. Many settlements were flooded and without power, and damage was caused to agriculture.

Stormy winds and strong seas led to the wreck of several ships in the Azov and Black Seas on November 11. The wind speed in the area of ​​the Kerch Strait connecting them reached 32 meters per second, and the sea state reached six to seven points. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as of 06.00 Monday, four ships sank in one day, six more ran aground, two tankers were damaged, one barge is drifting.

As RIA Novosti was told by the press service of the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, incidents similar to the current one have never happened in the Kerch Strait. Representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations suggested that the cause of the emergency could be that the ship crews ignored the storm warning that was sent out on Saturday.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, at 08.00 Moscow time on November 11, there were 59 ships in the area of ​​the port "Kavkaz", while all captains received information about deteriorating weather. But the weather conditions turned out to be even worse than predicted. In addition, the peculiarity of the Kerch Strait is that there are few bays to shelter ships from storms.

SHIPWRECK

At 04.45 Moscow time on Sunday, south of Port Kavkaz, in a roadstead during a storm, the Volgoneft-139 tanker, loaded with more than 4 thousand tons of fuel oil, broke in half. There were 13 crew members on board the tanker.

“The ship loaded oil products in Samara and proceeded to unload to Ukraine,” said Vladimir Erygin, head of the administration of the Novorossiysk commercial seaport.

“As a result of the accident, the bow remained at anchor, and the stern with the crew members was adrift.” By the evening of November 11, the stern of the tanker, with the help of its own ship power, ran aground in the area of ​​the Tuzla Spit.

Rescuers removed 13 people from the ship and took them to the port of Kavkaz. A representative of Port Kavkaz told RIA Novosti that as a result of the incident with the Volgoneft-139 tanker, no one was injured, but about one thousand tons of fuel oil spilled into the Sea of ​​Azov.

At 10.25 on November 11, the bulk carrier Volnogorsk sank, carrying more than 2.6 thousand tons of sulfur. The crew of eight people left the ship on a life raft and managed to land on the Tuzla Spit. They were hospitalized in the central district hospital of the city of Temryuk.

These are captain Sergei Porkhonyuk, first navigator Viktor Ponomarev, electrician Vadim Maslyukov, motor mechanic Dmitry Slegontov, cook Natalya Bobokhina, motor mechanic Denis Marov, third navigator Alexey Dobrovidov, motor mechanic Alexey Golovachev.

Having stumbled upon the sunken Volnogorsk, another dry cargo ship with sulfur, the Kovel, received a hole and began to sink. Rescuers transferred the Kovel crew to a tugboat; there was no fuel spill. At 19.00 Moscow time on November 11, the Kovel completely sank.

The cargo ship "Nakhichevan" with 2 thousand tons of sulfur also sank. Currently, three of the 11 crew members of this cargo ship have been rescued. The search for the remaining crew members continued into the night. Four Russian ships took part in them - "Proteus", "Poseidon", Mercury" and "Captain Zadorozhny".

The force six storm also caused the non-self-propelled barge "Dika" to run aground in the southwestern part of the Tuzla Spit. On board there are two people and 4,149 tons of fuel oil. There is no fuel leak. In the same area, a floating crane with one person ran aground.

On the evening of November 11, the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine reported that the Russian tugboat "MB 1224" with 13 crew members ran aground off the northwestern coast of Crimea during a storm. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the tug is located at a distance of 15-20 meters from the shore in the area of ​​Uzkaya Bay, not far from the village of Chernomorskoye. The ship was moving from the city of Azov to the mouth of the Danube.

And in the Novorossiysk area, Greek and Turkish dry cargo ships ran aground, Vladimir Erygin, head of the administration of the Novorossiysk seaport, told RIA Novosti. According to him, in both cases the captains lost control in the storm.

In addition, on the night of November 11, the cargo ship "Khash-Izmail", sailing under the Georgian flag with a cargo of metal from Mariupol to Tartu, sank in Sevastopol.

Head of the propaganda department of the Sevastopol city department of the ministry emergency situations Ukraine's Valery Strelets reported that only two of the 17 crew members were rescued. It was previously reported that the cargo ship was Russian and rescuers managed to bring 14 crew members ashore, but Strelets denied this information. According to his information, the ship was not anchored in Sevastopol and sank while entering the bay in the area of ​​​​the Khersones lighthouse. “They decided to go into the bay to wait out the storm and, while performing maneuvers, sank,” Strelets said.

According to the press service of the Crimean department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in the area of ​​​​Kapsel Bay (outskirts of Sudak, East End The southern coast of Crimea) was run aground by the Ukrainian ship "Vera Voloshina", which has 18 crew members on board. The ship with a cargo of agricultural machinery was traveling from Romania to Novorossiysk. Employees of the Crimean Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations evacuated the crew from the ship.

RESCUE OPERATIONS AND ELIMINATION OF CONSEQUENCES OF EMERGENCY

The storm wind caused significant damage to the infrastructure of Sevastopol - trees were knocked down and power supply was disrupted. Many settlements of Crimea are without power, units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Crimea, Krymenergo, Distribution Zone, gas service repair damage caused by hurricane winds.

Official representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Viktor Beltsov noted that all the vessels that suffered an accident on Sunday belong to the “river-sea” class. “Not a single incident has occurred with ocean-class vessels,” he noted. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, bad weather will continue until November 14.

To avoid new shipwrecks, 40 ships from the roadstead were removed from the roadstead of the port "Kavkaz" due to a strong storm. Ten ships remain in the roadstead, including two bulk carriers carrying sulfur.

The operational group of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory operates in the port "Kavkaz", and the operational headquarters of the Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation operates in Rostov-on-Don. The overall management of the rescue operation is carried out by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, and the coordination of all forces involved in it is carried out by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.

As Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Captain First Rank Igor Dygalo, told RIA Novosti, ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (Black Sea Fleet) are ready to provide assistance to ships in distress.

However, so far there have been no requests for help to the command of the Black Sea Fleet. “On the ships of the Black Sea Fleet moored at the berths in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, additional mooring lines have been installed. An additional watch has been set up. A search and rescue control post has been deployed at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, which monitors and analyzes the situation developing at sea,” he said Dygalo.

In connection with the incidents in the Kerch Strait, telephone numbers have been opened for relatives of sailors of the affected ships" hotline", a representative of the Southern Regional Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told RIA Novosti.

There are two hotlines at the port "Kavkaz" - (8-86148) 581-45 and 517-48. Two more hotline numbers operate in Krasnodar (8-861) 262-34-46, 262-52-27.

A helicopter from the Ministry of Emergency Situations flew to the disaster area, and it is also expected that as soon as the weather permits, two more helicopters will fly from Rostov-on-Don and Sochi.

15 of the 17 crew members of the cargo ship "Khash-Izmail", which sank in Sevastopol, sailing under the Georgian flag, are still listed as missing.

ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

He cited other figures - according to him, not one, but more than two thousand tons of fuel oil out of four thousand tons on board the tanker spilled into the water due to the fact that due to bad weather it was not possible to stop the oil spill from a broken in half the ship. “The crack, along which a fault later occurred, is located in the middle, between the third and fourth tank,” Mitvol said.

“There are serious concerns that the oil spill will continue,” said the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor.

As for the sunken cargo ship, according to Mitvol, sulfur is an inert material, and there is hope that it will not enter into any compounds that are dangerous to humans. In addition, after the storm, rescuers will try to lift containers with sulfur.
“But the dry cargo ship (Volnogorsk) also had tanks full of fuel oil. That is, we are dealing with a very serious situation related to the contamination of the Kerch Strait with oil products,” Mitvol said.

He noted that oil skimmers cannot work when the sea is very rough, and the fuel oil begins to sink to the bottom and will “create an increased background of oil content in the water” for several years.

“That is, this problem can turn into a problem of several years. Work to restore the ecological state of the Kerch Strait will take more than one month,” Mitvol said, pointing out that the technology for collecting fuel oil is very complex and expensive.
The President of the Russian Green Cross, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Sergei Baranovsky, on the contrary, believes that the sulfur cargo on dry cargo ships that sank due to a storm in the Kerch Strait is more harmful to the environment than an oil spill.

WRECKS

The bulk carrier "Volnogorsk" of project 21-88 was built in 1965 at the Slovenske Lodenice shipbuilding enterprise (Komarno, Czechoslovakia). The length of the vessel is 103.6 meters, width - 12.4 meters, draft 2.8 meters. The vessel's carrying capacity is two thousand tons. Until 2007, the ship was owned by the Azov-Don Shipping Company, located in Rostov-on-Don.

The bulk carrier "Nakhichevan" of the same project was built in 1966, it is owned by the Azov-Don Shipping Company.

The dry cargo ship "Kovel" was built in 1957 according to project 576. Similar ships were built at the Nizhny Novgorod plant "Krasnoe Sormovo" and in Romania. Dry cargo ships of this type are designed for transportation of bulk, bulk, packaged cargo, such as construction rubble, sand, coal, paper in rolls, and timber in logs. According to media reports, Kovel belongs to JSC Volga Shipping Company.

Bulk carrier "Kaunas" similar type in August 2002 crashed into the Liteiny Bridge on the Neva in St. Petersburg. The ship, which had almost two thousand tons of metal on board, was holed and sank, blocking ship traffic on the Neva for four days. During this time, more than 300 ships accumulated on both sides of the river, waiting for passage. The cause of the emergency was the failure of the steering device. After the accident, the cargo ship was written off.

In November 2003, the motor ship "Victoria" of the same project ran aground in the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, no one was injured. According to media reports, the captain of the Victoria, at the direction of the company's management, overloaded more than 300 tons. At the entrance to the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, the ship began to tilt, and water began to flow into the hull. To avoid flooding, the captain decided to run the ship aground.

The Volgoneft-139 tanker that broke apart in the Kerch Strait was built in 1978. It belongs to JSC Volgotanker. According to the vessel's owner's website, this tanker has eight tanks for transporting fuel oil, a double side and a double bottom. The first tanker of the Volgoneft series was built in 1962. They are built at the Volgograd Shipyard, at shipbuilding enterprises in the Bulgarian cities of Varna and Ruse.

The tanker is designed to transport crude oil and petroleum products, its length is 132.6 meters, width - 16.9 meters, draft - 3.5 meters. The tanker's carrying capacity is five thousand tons. There were 4.777 thousand tons of fuel oil on board Volgoneft-139.

There are several projects of tankers of this series - 550, 550A, 558, 630, 1577. They differ in their carrying capacity, pipeline design, superstructure, and mast design. 65 tankers of Project 550A, to which Volgoneft-139 belongs, and more than 200 tankers of other projects were built.

In December 1999, a similar incident occurred with the Volgoneft-248 tanker of Project 1577. It broke under the impact of a powerful wave and sank during a storm in the Sea of ​​Marmara off the coast of Turkey on December 29, 1999. The Coast Guard was able to evacuate 15 crew members from the ship. About 800 tons of fuel oil spilled into the sea.

In the summer of 2002, the tanker Komsomol Volgograd (originally Volgoneft-213) ran aground on the Svir River near St. Petersburg. The cause of the emergency was a technical malfunction of the steering. The tanker received three holes, but no oil spill occurred.

The material was prepared by the online editors of www.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti

Today, due to a strong storm in the Sea of ​​Azov, an oil tanker and two dry cargo ships carrying several tons of sulfur sank. Environmentalists say that sulfur entering the sea is even greater ecological catastrophy than an oil spill.

At night, the Russian tanker Volgoneft-139 broke in two in the Kerch Strait. According to official data, as a result of the accident, 1.3 thousand tons of petroleum products spilled into the water.

After some time, the bulk carrier Volnogorsk with 2.5 thousand tons of sulfur on board sank near the port of Kavkaz. True, again according to official data, as a result of the shipwreck, no sulfur entered the sea; the crew members of the dry cargo ship left the ship in a timely manner and were rescued.

Misfortune never comes alone

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, reports appeared that another ship carrying a cargo of sulfur, the bulk carrier Nakhichevan, sank in the Kerch Strait. IN this moment A search is underway for the sailors who disappeared during the cargo ship crash, but they have not yet brought any results, an employee of the press service of the main directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Krasnodar Territory told RIA Novosti.

According to him, three crew members of this dry cargo ship have now been rescued - sailors Alexander Gorshkov and Roman Radonsky and cook Anna Rey.

Also recently, information was received that the Volgoneft-123 tanker was damaged.

Despite the fact that about 50 ships have been removed from the Kerch Strait to safe areas, another ship is in critical condition. According to some reports, the SOS signal was sent by a ship whose anchor chain was broken. In addition, there is an unmanaged barge in the strait with 3 thousand tons of fuel oil, which is being carried towards Cape Tuzla.

And in the Black Sea too

Today it is not only the Sea of ​​Azov that is stormy. A difficult situation is also developing in the Black Sea. Thus, in the Sevastopol area, a Russian ship with a cargo of metal sank, which was traveling along the Mariupol - Istanbul route. Of the 16 crew members, 13 people were saved, two were killed, and one is considered missing.

The disaster area gathers all kinds of leaders. So, the head of the State Emergency and Rescue Coordination Service (Gosmorspasluzhba) Anatoly Yanchuk, deputy head Federal service sea ​​and river transport (Rosmorrechflot) Evgeny Trunin, deputy head of the Federal Service for Supervision in Transport (Rostransnadzor) Vladimir Popov.

Sulfur is more dangerous than oil

The cargo of sulfur on dry cargo ships that sank due to a storm in the Kerch Strait is more harmful to the environment than an oil spill, RIA Novosti quotes the President of the Russian Green Cross, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Sergei Baranovsky.

"An oil spill is a big problem, but an even bigger problem is the sunken cargo of sulfur. Now the scale of possible environmental damage depends on the prompt actions of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and rescue services, but in any case this is a serious environmental disaster,” Baranovsky said.

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It would seem that what could happen on the shallowest, warm and calm Sea of ​​Azov in the world? Alas, tragedies recent years, including the current swimming season, confirm that the Sea of ​​Azov, despite its external silence and grace, is fraught with a lot of mysteries and dangers.

Last year we talked about the tragedy that happened on the other side of the Azov shores, on the island of Yeisk Spit. On the morning of July 7, 74 children and teenagers from the pioneer camp arrived on an excursion to the island. During the group's stay, children were allowed to swim near the shore. But due to the strong current, six children were unable to go ashore and drowned along with the teacher who tried to save them. To date, all the bodies of the victims have been identified - a teacher, three boys, aged 8, 9 and 11 years, and three girls, aged 12, 16 and 9 years.

In the summer of the year before last, a tragic incident also occurred in the village of Yuryevka, located fifty kilometers from Mariupol. At a depth of only about a meter, twenty meters from the shore, a twelve-year-old boy almost drowned. Two adult, physically strong thirty-year-old guys who came to his aid were able to push the boy out of the water, but they themselves became victims of the depths of the sea.

It was nine o'clock in the morning, the adults were sober, relaxing on the beach with their families. How such a tragedy could happen is beyond comprehension. The surviving boy says that he was playing ball with his uncle in the sea and suddenly the sand began to suddenly disappear from under his feet. He began to scream, and his uncle rushed to help, who at that time went away to pick up the ball that had flown to the side. The uncle arrived in time, pushed the boy aground, but began to drown himself. Seeing such a picture, another man rushed to help. They and the rescuers who arrived in time pulled the boy out of the water, but unknown sea forces pulled two adult men under the water.

What is the reason for these tragedies? Are they rare? Let's try to understand these questions in order.

One of the most obvious causes of tragedies is sea currents and the whirlpools they cause. Yuryevka is located between two spits of Belosarayskaya and Berdyansk. When two currents meet in the Yalta Bay, a vortex is formed sea ​​water, which often leads to whirlpools. Fishermen say that sometimes the boats spin so that it is difficult to row them out. Local residents do not remember any cases when boats sank due to a whirlpool; in the worst case, they were carried out to sea. That is, there is no need to talk about any huge whirlpools in Azov.

According to the head of the recreation department of the regional landscape park "Meotida" Andrey Kiyanenko, currents and whirlpools are strong not only in the Yuryevka area, but especially at the ends of the Azov spits - on Belosarayskaya, Berdyanskaya, Dolgaya, Sedov spit, Yeisk spit and others that are unique in their to its formation of the Azov braids. Tragic cases where people were carried out to sea not only air mattresses, but even without them they have happened before. Even athletes who were fully prepared for high water drowned on the spits.

So, exactly twenty years ago from the day of the tragedy in Yuryevka, on July 15, 1989, the crews of 9 ships of the city Young Sailors Club set out to sea from Mariupol. After a twelve-day voyage, the training ship "Orion", 2 motorboats and 4 boats returned back, and two ships with seven adult crew members and five cadets had to sail further to circle the Sea of ​​Azov, calling at Yeysk, Kerch and Berdyansk. At noon on July 28, the executive committee of the Mariupol City Council received the first alarming information: the ships were at the Dolgaya Spit, the crews were missing. Without delay, an emergency commission of the city executive committee was created. The search for the missing included vessels of the Azov Sea and Volga Don River Shipping Companies located in the sea, rescue vessels of the emergency rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet, rescue equipment of fishing collective farms of the Krasnodar Territory, military aircraft and helicopters, and aviation of the traffic police of the Donetsk region.

On the evening of July 31, military pilots from Rostov-on-Don reported: in the area of ​​the village of Kamyshevatskaya, not far from Yeisk and the Dolgaya Spit, bodies washed ashore by the waves were discovered. Soon there will be a new message: 5 more bodies have been found. And only in the second half of the next day the tenth dead crew member was discovered. The surviving two passengers of the yacht - an eight-year-old boy and a seventeen-year-old girl - did not clarify the course of events. When they were asked where the others were, they said that they were sleeping and did not see anything. At the dawn of perestroika, this mysterious incident was discussed for a long time in the press and did not leave the lips of ordinary people. Some considered UFOs to be the culprit for the death of the entire crew, others considered poachers, whose illegal fishing was allegedly witnessed by young sailors.

We will not comment on the first assumption... The other is unlikely. If poachers had so easily destroyed ten young boys, then in those days they would definitely have been found and simply drowned somewhere nearby. It is unlikely that anyone would raise their hand to commit such a blatant atrocity. It remains to look for the reason terrible riddle in the sea.

As the two surviving guys later said, they woke up simultaneously in the middle of the night with a feeling of inexplicable anxiety. The sailors' clothes were randomly scattered on the deck. The depth in that place was insignificant - the yacht was sitting aground, where the bottom was visible from any side. The yachtsmen with whom we spoke believe that the reason for the death of the guys could be strong sea currents running along the tip of the Dolgaya Spit, caused by a surge wave. Most likely, the guys got into the water to push the boat off the shoal, got caught in the current, the others rushed to save them and were also carried out to sea one after another.

I would not like to turn to mysticism, but in all these accidents there are still several fatal coincidences and magic numbers. The boat, which perhaps indirectly caused the death of the crew in 1989, at that time it was called “Arktos”, exactly 13 (!) years later, and, what is more incredible, again on July 25, converted by this time into a yacht with a new name "Mariupol" drowned five passengers and sank itself. In the area of ​​the village of Melekino, she gave rides to vacationers. Despite the fact that it was designed for only 10 people, the captain took 38 passengers on board. A small wave one and a half kilometers from the shore caused the yacht to capsize. The ship fell on its side and began to slowly sink. Of the 38 passengers, 33 were rescued. Interestingly, after the tragedy, the yacht was lifted from the bottom by a floating crane of the Mariupol port, stored in the port for about a year, and then taken out in an unknown direction; its further fate is unknown to us. Will it be restored and launched again? It is quite possible, although the yachtsmen with whom we spoke believe that such an unlucky yacht still needs to be looked for and the best thing would be to simply destroy it, burn it, and scatter the ashes over the sea. But let's return to the topic of our main question.

Long Spit, if anyone doesn’t know, is located on the opposite bank Sea of ​​Azov, in the territory Russian Federation. In the Soviet years, when there were no borders between our countries, Mariupol yachtsmen often sailed on the other side of the sea. If you look at the map of the Sea of ​​Azov, it is noticeable that the Dolgaya Spit is located almost directly opposite the Belosarayskaya Spit. So the flow water mass in this place it passes through the neck of a bottle and accordingly intensifies. With a surge caused by western and southwestern winds, the sea level in the Taganrog Bay area sometimes rises to two meters. When the winds weaken, the water rushes back, and in a fairly rapid flow.

A friend of the author of these lines just recently became personally convinced of how dangerous the ends of the Azov Spit can be - he saved a girl of about twelve years old at the tip of Belosarayka. While her parents were chatting enthusiastically on the shore, she walked into the shallows about fifty meters from the shore, there is no other way to say it - into the open sea, because at the tip of the spit there is sea on almost all sides. The depth for her height was just above her waist, but at the same time she could not get out of the sea on her own. She managed to get right at the junction of two currents, this was clearly evidenced by the waves rolling onto each other with different sides at an angle of approximately fifty degrees.

“At first she didn’t understand that something was wrong and calmly jumped on the waves, but then horror appeared on her face,” said a friend. “She tried to go to the shore, but the sea dragged her back. Surely, in such an unequal struggle, her strength would not last long, especially since physically the girl was clearly not an athlete. When I approached it, despite the relatively calm surface of the water, I felt a mighty river flowing along the bottom. The current was so strong that I could hardly stand on my feet. I was seriously scared. I told the girl to hold on to my hand, and so, step by step, we gradually got out into the shallow water, and then onto the shore. If it had been a little deeper, I wouldn’t have been able to fight the current...”

This kind of power lives in the “gentle” Sea of ​​Azov. The author of these lines, as an admirer of holidays on the Belosarayskaya Spit, has himself tested the strength of this current on himself more than once. At the very end of the spit it is better not to swim at all, but before reaching its last point you can. The main thing is to stay no more than ten to fifteen meters from the shore at all times, and so that the depth is no higher than the waist. You can get interesting sensations. You just need to relax, lie on your back, and the current itself will carry you along the shore at approximately the speed of a person walking at a fast pace - it’s been tested. Although such a strong current does not always happen. Such a river in the sea - exotic! But this exoticism would be good if it didn’t kill so many people.

According to Andrei Kiyanenko, there are fewer cases of drowning on the spits than in other places only for the reason that the number of vacationers on them is much smaller. And on the Sedov Spit, the guards of the Meotida Landscape Park generally do not allow vacationers to go to the tip of the spit; they guard the nesting places of birds. Things are worse on the Belosarskaya Spit. Every year more and more vacationers come here, to the tip of the spit, but many of them are not even aware of the danger that this beautiful place conceals.

But the tragedy that occurred in Yuryevka last year cannot be clearly blamed on sea currents. Firstly, near the shore at shallow depths they are not strong enough to drag and drown two young, physically strong men who can swim. Secondly, Yuryevka is located practically in the Yalta Bay and the currents here are extremely weak. For some reason, similar cases were not recorded in the neighboring villages of Yalta and Urzuf. Moreover, there were none not according to official data, but precisely according to local residents, including Meotida employees. The most dangerous place, according to the Yuryev residents, is located on the outskirts of Yuryevka, on the Urzuf side, in an area with a self-explanatory name - Cape Zmeinny.

The head of the Mariupol public environmental organization “Clean Coast”, sailor and yachtsman Yulian Mikhailov, also does not believe that currents were the cause of the tragedy in Yuryevka.

“The bottom there is muddy, almost a swamp; what kind of strong currents can there be there? – He wonders. – I have been involved in yachting for many years, I know the sea like my own and, believe me, I have never seen sinkholes even on the open sea, not to mention the Yalta Bay, that could pull an adult man who knows how to swim under water. The sea directions (handbooks for sailors) also do not mention strong currents in this area. I can only guess about the reasons for the natural anomalies in Yuryevka, but sea currents are not to blame for them.”

Olga Shakula, head of the nature department of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore, agrees with the opinion of the yachtsman-ecologist. According to her, the reason lies most likely in the fact that just in the area of ​​​​Cape Zmeinny there is a global geological fault between the bedrock plates at a depth of about one kilometer. It crosses the entire Sea of ​​Azov and creates seismic activity in Crimea. During geological movements, the plates overlap each other, crumble, and shift the upper soil layers. By the way, the release of fragments of these rocks appears on the surface in the ill-fated, widely known radioactive “black” sands, the basis of which is radioactive thorium. In addition to the release of sand, the geological instability of the area also contributes to massive movements of the upper part earth's surface, including leading to mudflows and landslides that occur not only on land, but also under a layer of sea water.

According to Olga Shakula, it is possible that the cause of the tragedies in Yuryevka was precisely these features of changes in soil conditions. Mud mudflows are a low-density mass of solid matter consisting of silt, clay and sand. This mass cannot support the weight of a person. Soil activity, faults and cracks also contribute to the formation of underground rivers. Where these waters wash out the bottom surface, sinkholes form. Locals say that during the construction of one of the buildings of the boarding house in Yuryevka, during the driving of the first pile, it simply fell somewhere deep underground and the idea with piles had to be abandoned.

“Five years ago we vacationed in Yuryevka with families and employees of our museum,” says Olga Shakula. – Our colleague almost drowned at a shallow depth, before our eyes she began to fall into the sand, screamed, from her face we realized that she was not joking, my husband would not have had time to swim, and therefore he threw her a children’s inflatable ring. Everything happened in a matter of seconds, the colleague still believes that the circle thrown by her husband saved her life.”

Another phenomenon also occurs in Yuryevka - the release of gas to the surface. Locals say that in winter, when the sea becomes covered with a crust of thin clear ice accumulations of gas bubbles under the ice are very clearly visible. Children even have fun - drilling a small hole in the ice and igniting the gas that comes out of it.

According to Georgy Ryazantsev, an employee of the Azov Research Station, the cause of death is methane emissions from silt deposits.

“Under sand, under shells, under clay rocks, cavities may form in which gas is located, and if these cavities are overfilled, gas can escape here,” says the researcher.

Thus, at the moment of gas release, a person finds himself in a rarefied gas environment, the density of which does not allow the person to remain on the surface. He instantly falls into the abyss and dies in a split second.

Experts note that volumetric scientific research no studies have been carried out on the influence of the geological fault on the ecology of the Sea of ​​Azov in its northern part. The seashore is fraught with a lot unsolved mysteries. Unfortunately, some of these mysteries lead to dire consequences, and therefore, in our opinion, deserve closer, more detailed scientific study. According to experts, in order to accurately determine the causes of the tragedies and develop a set of safety measures, it is necessary to carry out drilling operations in the anomalous zone of the Azov Sea, and this is a very expensive and troublesome undertaking. However, the number of tragic incidents in Yuryevka has already exceeded the point when it’s time to deal with the issue like an adult. After all, until now Substantial part Cases of drowned people are attributed to their drunken state and careless behavior in the water. What percentage corresponds to the real state of affairs, no one can say today.

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